The present disclosure relates generally to information handling systems, and more particularly to a floating circuit board connector system for an information handling system.
As the value and use of information continues to increase, individuals and businesses seek additional ways to process and store information. One option available to users is information handling systems. An information handling system generally processes, compiles, stores, and/or communicates information or data for business, personal, or other purposes thereby allowing users to take advantage of the value of the information. Because technology and information handling needs and requirements vary between different users or applications, information handling systems may also vary regarding what information is handled, how the information is handled, how much information is processed, stored, or communicated, and how quickly and efficiently the information may be processed, stored, or communicated. The variations in information handling systems allow for information handling systems to be general or configured for a specific user or specific use such as financial transaction processing, airline reservations, enterprise data storage, or global communications. In addition, information handling systems may include a variety of hardware and software components that may be configured to process, store, and communicate information and may include one or more computer systems, data storage systems, and networking systems.
Information handling systems such as, for example, server devices, networking devices, storage devices, and/or other computing devices often include circuit boards with connectors (e.g., edge connectors) that allow those circuit boards to be connected to other circuit boards and/or devices. For example, many computing devices include a motherboard having one or more sockets that may connect to matching connectors on riser board(s) (e.g., PCI riser card(s)). As the input/output density of computing devices increases, the bandwidth per riser board requires an increasing density of pins per connector and an increasing quantity of connectors per riser board. However, as the number of connectors and pins per connector increases, the pin pitch of connector pins on the connectors decreases, and tolerances relating to the amount of lateral movement and lateral misalignment allowable between multiple connectors of the riser board and multiple sockets of the motherboard decreases.
Conventional manufacturing techniques typically provide motherboards with a certain amount of tolerance in the relative location of the sockets. When the tolerance of the relative location between multiple sockets on the motherboard exceeds the lateral movement tolerance of corresponding connectors on a riser board used with that motherboard, issues can arise. For example, the riser board connectors can bind with out-of-tolerance sockets of the motherboard, socket housings and/or connector pins can be damaged, and/or the pins of the riser board may miss their corresponding pads included in the socket (or short circuit in response to connecting to adjacent pads.) As the pin pitch of connector pins decreases to sub-millimeter distances, these issues are exacerbated, resulting in increased manufacturing costs due to an increase in out-of-tolerance spacing of sockets, and the need to purchase elaborate tooling to achieve more accurate spacing.
Accordingly, it would be desirable to provide an improved circuit board connector system.